At Downham C of E Primary School, we believe that reading is the foundation of all learning. A love of reading enriches pupils’ lives, enhances their imagination, and provides them with the essential skills to succeed across the curriculum. Our carefully structured reading programme nurtures confident, fluent readers from an early age, developing their comprehension, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills.

To support this, we have created a brand-new library space at the heart of our school—a welcoming and inspiring environment designed to foster a lifelong love of books. Stocked with a diverse range of high-quality literature, the library provides pupils with access to classic and contemporary texts that spark curiosity and creativity. Regular library sessions, author visits, and reading initiatives ensure that every child has the opportunity to engage with books in a meaningful way.

Through our commitment to reading, we empower our pupils with the knowledge, confidence, and enthusiasm to become independent learners, ensuring they are well-prepared for their future educational journey.

Text based curriculum: Our curriculum is planned around a series of carefully chosen, high quality texts. The texts relate to the year group’s wider curriculum and are used to stimulate writing and immerse children in the curriculum. Each teacher, in liaison with their class identifies, discusses and displays new, challenging and interesting vocabulary with the expectation that it will be used by the children.

Supporting parents/Home Reading: Downham C of E Primary School provides information to parents about supporting their child’s learning at home, including detail about the school’s method of teaching reading and how to help their children learn to read. The school has high expectations of parental support including a clear amount of reading time that parents should be completing each week.